Saturday, April 11, 2009

So much for the Israeli Boycott

The worldwide Israeli boycott doesn't seem to be making much of an impression on anyone but the British…who have a long painful history of anti-semitism anyway. Ynet News:

The Israeli product's image abroad appears to particularly positive: A comprehensive study conducted by the Foreign Ministry in the world's 13 biggest markets revealed that 59% of consumers in those countries hold a positive attitude towards products made in Israel. Thirty-one percent of the respondents said that knowing a product is Israeli would make them purchase it. Only 2% said they would not purchase a product because it was made in Israel.

Eight percent said they would be encouraged not to purchase a product if they knew it was made in Israel, and 31% said this fact would not influence their decision on whether to buy the product or not.

The study was held among 5,215 people in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Russia, China, India and Japan. The survey showed that Israeli products in the high-tech, software, food and medicine industries are considered products of high-quality and that the attitude towards them is significantly positive.

Foreign Ministry officials said that the findings of the survey, conducted in the last quarter of 2008 by the international TNS company, show that despite the calls for a boycott, Israeli products will be perceived as high-quality products and that this stance is not influenced by ideological views.

Apparently, tourism to Israel isn’t significantly impacted either, but of course, once again it was only the Brits who held any significant high negatives against traveling to Israel. In other news, the Russians have signed the deal to buy Israeli drones.